


The First Two Years

by LadyAshlaLordBogen



Series: Estel Elrondiel [20]
Category: The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: F/F, Gen, Harad, Ithilien, Mordor, Transition piece, Umbar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-07
Updated: 2018-04-07
Packaged: 2019-04-19 18:52:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14243610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyAshlaLordBogen/pseuds/LadyAshlaLordBogen
Summary: Here is the end of the Ithilien arc (thank God).  Politics are afoot, but CG Purple, led by Anariel of the North, is more concerned with staying alive, harassing slavers, and disrupting supply lines.





	The First Two Years

**Author's Note:**

> Ithilien 6

It had been a long boring year on the Ithilien border.  Estel wasn’t complaining though.  It gave her more time to train with her CG and learn from her uncles.  Uncle Amras and Uncle Amrod had told her some _fantastic_ stories about Dad, Papa, and Uncle Telpe. 

They were setting up a temporary camp, so they could get some decent sleep in relative safety when a call came from Heimir-Beta 2-who was on comms duty for the week.  “Ana, there’s a call for you from Minas Tirith.  Do you want me to get Mirial, Quinny, and Cody?”

“Please.  What frequency?”

“It’s up in the Command tent.  It sounded serious, Ana, I would go there sooner than later.”

Estel nodded in thanks before heading to the Command tent, which was simply a fancy way of saying the tent with all of the maps and advanced comms equipment.

“My lord Steward, Alpha 4 here.”

“Alpha 4, you and your CG are being promoted.  Alpha is being promoted to Captain, Charlie to First Lieutenant, Beta and Delta to Second Lieutenants.  You need the rank in order to have the necessary authority to do your next assignment, which is to go across the border and gather intelligence until we retrieve you.  Do whatever you have to do, go wherever you have to go, the Steward’s office will clear all actions post-hoc.  I don’t want to have any sort of communication outside of coded reports until we recall you.  Do you understand?”

“Yes sir.  I’ll brief my team and we will head out in a reasonable amount of time.  Sir, if you want coded reports, would it be possible for us to have a code cylinder?”

“Granted, Captain Ana.  We have a new CG that will be taking over your duties in Ithilien.”

“Understood sir.  Anything else?”

“Dismissed, Captain.”  The link closed down before the Lord Steward could see Estel’s troubled frown.  She found a spare notebook and a pen and wrote down what she knew.  She would need it for the briefing.  Her uncles were the ones to find her.  “What is it, titta tinwë?”

“We received promotions and orders.  This is probably what I was getting the bad feeling about.”

She handed Uncle Amras the notebook.  He looked over it quickly and said “You really do have _amazing_ instincts, don’t you?  I wouldn’t have been able to guess large parts of that when I had your level of experience.  I agree, this isn’t an official mission and it’s probably a suicide mission.  The Steward must be desperate to be sending you and the rest of this CG.  You are all so _young_.”

“I agree.  Your conclusions seem accurate and insightful.  You can do this, Estel.”

“I already thought this was suicidal, all this does is give us a clear idea of what to do next.”  Mirial, Cody, and Quinn came in and quietly read Estel’s notes. “I think that we should leave before the reinforcements come.” Mirial commented.  “Call me paranoid, but there is something about this assignment that is rubbing me the wrong way.”

The others agreed and made plans to leave for the border the next day.  Somehow, there was a code cylinder that made its way into Estel’s hands.  The next year and a half was spent gathering information and sending reports to Gondor and Lothlórien, which was much closer than the Valley or the Greenwood and easier to smuggle letters to.  Eventually, whispers even reached the North of a group of pirates and agitators in the South, stealing from the rich, freeing the enslaved, and harassing the servants of Mordor.  The older elves smiled knowingly at some of the antics that the group seemed to get up to, Estel was truly her father’s daughter-an absolute _imp_ with a loathing of injustice and a temper to match her long-father, Elros. 

The call came one day to back up CG Black, who were assigned to watch Mordor.  The problems were that they were in Rhun, and they had a pair of Elvish babysitters.  The first part was easy enough to remedy-Mirial had already sent Zoe, Heimir, Hippolyte, and Waleed of Beta squad to acquire boats.  The elvish babysitters-Estel’s uncles Amrod and Amras were a more complicated matter, as they had been dispatched at a King’s command, and allowed by the Lord Steward of the lands of Gondor to accompany them. The only way to easily get rid of them was for Estel to convince them to go.  That is what she was doing now.

Mirial was listening in, grateful for Ana and her uncles teaching her Quenya, which is what they would normally speak.  The volume increased as Ana’s voice became passionate “We need someone to report back to the Noldoran, Uncles!  You are the only two I would trust to go by yourselves!”

“Estel, we understand that, but what is so important that you want this sent personally.”

“We got new orders.  I don’t think they’ve been approved by the Wise and it’s something they should have been consulted on before any sort of action was taken.  They need to know, and its to sensitive to trust to a letter or radio.  You know I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t necessary.”

“I don’t like this, Russa.  Your father entrusted us with your safety”

“And I’ll take the heat for it when he finds out.”

“We’re staying with you until you reach the border.”

“Fine.” Ana’s voice was softer now. “I was expecting you to ask that.”

Things moved quickly after that, but it still took 6 months to get to the border.  Those six months were spent harassing the Enemy’s supply lines and attempting to bring the attention towards the South and away from Mordor.  There were only two names that were widely known during all of their exploits, the dread captain Ana and her partner-captain Mirial.  They had become legend amongst the Southron peasants and slaves for caring about them and trying to fix the system.  The group eventually made it to the border, where the Ambarussa took their leave of the group, with a large bundle of paper wrapped into Amras’ saddlebags.  They would move much faster now they were riding without a war-ready company.  Purple then moved onto Mordor, where they would back up the existing CG Black, bolstering their numbers and resources.


End file.
